Whole Baked Fish – Herb-stuffed with Garlic & Dill Butter Sauce
Recipe video above. For anyone who's wondered how to cook a whole fish, the best and easiest way is to bake it whole. The flesh is at its juiciest and most tender, and it's completely effortless! Roasting fish this way is easy enough for midweek meals, but still makes an impressive centrepiece for occasions! I'm using a whole snapper today, but this recipe will work for virtually any fish. See Note 1 for other fish ideal to cook whole.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Course: Main
Cuisine: Western
Keyword: baked snapper, Baked whole fish, how to cook a whole fish, roasted whole fish, snapper recipe, whole snapper recipe
Servings: 4
Calories: 569cal
Author: Nagi
Ingredients
2x 800g / 1.6 lbwhole snapper or other whole fish, scaled, gutted and cleaned (Note 1)
Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan). Line a tray with parchment/baking paper.
Trim fins: Cut all fins off the fish using scissors – both fins on the side, and the fins on the back and underside of the fish (but not the tail).
Slash flesh: Cut 3 slashes on each side of the fish, cutting through flesh down to the bone (see photos in post and/or video, helpful!).
Stuff fish (Note 2): Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper inside the cavity of the fish. Scatter the cavity with garlic slices, then stuff with parsley and dill. Layer lemons on top of herbs.
Tie fish (Note 3): Using kitchen string make 3 ties to hold fish together.
Season skin: Sprinkle remaining salt and pepper on the skin (both sides), including a bit on the head of the fish. Then drizzle with olive oil. Rub all over the fish, including in the slashes.
Bake 20 minutes (Note 4): Place fish on prepared tray. Bake for 20 minutes or until the internal temperature is 55°C/131°F (insert thermometer in the thickest part of the fish, not against the bone). Alternatively, use a small knife at one of the cut slits in the fish to prise a bit of meat gently away from the spine. If it flakes away from the bone without resistance, it's done.
Rest: Remove from oven, transfer to serving platter and leave it to rest for 5 minutes. The internal temperature will rise to 58°C / 136.5F ("medium", ie. just-cooked and not raw at all, very juicy and moist).
Serve with Garlic & Dill Butter Sauce on the side. Either pour over the butter just prior to serving the fish, or let everyone help themselves. See this video by Serious Eats for a concise tutorial for how to carve and serve a whole roasted fish.
Garlic & Dill Butter Sauce:
Melted butter: Place butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Once melted, add garlic and cook, stirring, for 45 seconds to 1 minute until it smells ridiculously good and you're salivating!
Add dill: Remove from heat. Stir in dill. Use per recipe.
Notes
1. Fish - I've used snapper here but this recipe is suitable for many types of fish.For this recipe I would recommend mostly sticking round fish. These are fish that are shaped like the snapper pictured in this post. They are roughly cylindrical in the centre of their bodies, and swim upright (as contrasted with say flat fish like flounder, turbot, sole etc that swim lying flat). Round fish fillets tend to be thicker, making them easier to cook.I would also recommend fish with large and flat fillets such as the snapper pictured. This is for ease of stuffing, for better flesh yield, easier cooking and also for serving. Torpedo-shaped fish like flathead, gurnard / latchet and catfish, or fish with very large heads like rock cod, will be a slightly more challenging.Avoid: fish that tend to dry out easily as kingfish, tuna, mackerel, or bonito.Suggested fish that are suitably sized and shaped for cooking whole:
Snapper (pictured)
Bream / dorade
Barramundi
Blue cod / blue eye trevalla
Jewfish / mulloway
Trout (river)
Salmon (small ones)
Cod
Haddock
Bass / sea bass / branzino
Pollock
Tilapia
2. Cavity of fish – This is the empty belly area where the guts were. 3. Tying fish – This step is recommended but not essential. It holds the fish together so the flavour from the herbs etc infuses into the flesh better, and holds the fish in shape (stops the belly flaps from curling outwards). Do not worry about doing fancy butcher-style tying with a single piece of string. Just get three string lengths, and tie them around the fish at intervals! It does the same job.4. Cooking time for whole fish – 20 minutes is for 800g individual fish (any number). Larger fish will take longer to cook, and different shaped fish can take slightly different cooking times. It is not an exact science, so start checking your fish at the 15 minute mark and every few minutes from there.